Republicans vote to gut Ethics Office that monitors congressional wrongdoing

On Monday, House Republicans voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, which monitors congressional action for wrongdoing, with no advance warning.

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On Monday, House Republicans voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, which monitors congressional action for wrongdoing, with no advance warning.

Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced the move on late Monday, saying that the change to the rules had been approved, over the wishes of top members of their party as well as their Democratic counterparts.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, as well as Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader, both opposed the change to the rules, which would take away the independence of the ethics office and give lawmakers more power in investigations. The House is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to approve the new rules, which would remain in place for the next two years and which would give most of the power to the House Ethics Committee rather than the more independent O.C.E.

The Office of Congressional Ethics has been controversial since its inception in 2008 after it was created in the wake of several scandals. In particular, Goodlatte defended the decision to change the rules by noting the fact that many have called the efforts of the O.C.E overzealous, saying, “The O.C.E. has a serious and important role in the House, and this amendment does nothing to impede their work.”

But Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi disagreed, saying, “Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House G.O.P. has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions. Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.”

 

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